When you manage a staff, it can become challenging to deal with different personalities. Teamwork struggles will naturally come about but effective managers should be able to identify these challenges so that they could implement a solution accordingly.
When you are able to resolve issues within the team, then the performance level of each employee could be improved.
Before you can even solve any issue or problem, then you have to grasp a level of understanding about usual challenges concerning teamwork in the office. That is when you can creatively and effectively craft solutions for each. The challenges do vary, depending on your field of work but there are common ones encountered across different industries. We discuss how you could address these problems below:
1. Be clear with a project directive.
It is of high importance that your employee should know what is expected of them in a project. They should be given a clear direction so that they could avoid doing irrelevant work that is far from the project goals or that they could deliver exactly what the company expects from them. In this way, they are also able to become more efficient in fulfilling their assigned tasks.
Talking to an employee at the start will help so that they know on the get-go what they are working on. Let them do the work afterward then regularly check their progress and its alignment with the tasks you talked about during your first meeting. Put all of these in a record so that there won’t be any misunderstanding or miscommunication. Your employee can also use the file as a reference or guide.
2. Establish trust among everyone in the team.
It’s important that your team members trust one another so that they could work productively. When an employee trusts his or her colleagues, it’s easier for him or her to ask for help or to offer it as well. As a result, problems are solved more effectively.
Trust forms naturally over time when you could see how a colleague acts and delivers tasks reliably. You could arrange team-building activities so that your staff is more acquainted with one another.
3. Adjust according to a situation.
When hiring employees, consider if the applicant will fit in your work culture and will jive with the staff that you already have. This will avoid clashing personalities in the office. If two people are in conflict, listen to their woes and adjust their tasks so that both of them can work in harmony. You can also get a mediator so that a third party can help them resolve and work with their differences.
If a workplace could deal with conflict well, it can increase morale and improve cooperation among your staff members.
If there are concerns about inefficiency in the workplace, you may invest in ergonomic furniture for each member of the team. A standing desk, standing desk converter, ergonomic chair, desk bikes, and other ergonomic pieces will help them stay more alert while working and focused on finishing their tasks for the project.
4. Be transparent with all project-related information.
To build trust and help team members succeed in fulfilling a project, there should be transparency. All employees must not withhold any information that is related to the project from one another. If one employee receives insufficient information, then he or she may do unrelated work to the project which will just be counterproductive for the whole team.
First, as a manager, you have to set an example. You must always be transparent and share all information needed for the project. Then you have to reiterate to your staff members that they should also be transparent with their part or contribution to the project. Personal motivations should not be on top of the team’s best interest.
Aside from this, vital information also includes the expectations of each employee in the team. So everyone must communicate openly what they need and expect so that the whole team stays productive. This also reduces the risk of duplicating work or delaying the progress of the project. As a manager, you may provide different methods as to how each member in the group could communicate and coordinate their tasks with one another.
You could have a group chat or an email thread where everyone needed is looped in the conversation.
5. Emphasize the need for collaboration.
Competition is healthy to some extent but when there are employees who are too competitive in the team, they might be working for their own interest rather than wanting to contribute to the betterment of the project as a whole. When the competition is stiff instead of encouraging, the tendency is there will be less communication within the team. This will increase the likelihood of someone committing a mistake and may lead to the withholding of vital information.
The manager should step in and emphasize the benefits of collaboration. This is a combined team effort and not an individual task. Having a reward for a team goal accomplished together might help. Then, you can highlight each member’s contribution to the accomplishment.
6. Work on your team members’ differences.
Each member of the team will have different approaches to accomplishing a goal. When they work based on their personal preference, inefficiency might thrive in the group. You as a manager should have firm leadership to minimize the negative impact of such differences. According to Indeed.com, allow all the members to address their concerns and preferences and hear each one out. Afterward, make a final decision that everyone should follow.
They might also clash in terms of personal habitual differences. These can include how they organize their files, how hygienic they are, or where and when they eat out. To address differences in terms of personal habits, a code of conduct may help to still allow personal freedom while also laying out what is inconsiderate and inappropriate for others.
7. Have one uniform team goal.
The goal should be clear from the very start. They should be in agreement on what the end product should be after the project is done. This will help in making everyone consistent while doing cohesive work in line with the agreed, unified goal. Always check in with the members to be clear with the goal.
